49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick celebrates a touchdown during a divisional playoff game against the Panthers in January. / Sam Sharpe, USA TODAY Sports

by Lindsay H. Jones, USA TODAY Sports

by Lindsay H. Jones, USA TODAY Sports

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - First Colin Kaepernick laughed, then he got serious for a moment Thursday when asked for a reaction to the view that the San Francisco 49ers "won" by getting him to sign a massive, albeit team-friendly, contract this month.

"You can skew things any way you want," Kaepernick said. "At the end of the day, a lot of the way the contract is set up is the way every other quarterback's contract is set up. The things that aren't set up like those contracts are because we wanted them that way, so we could sign other players."

Kaepernick's mega-contract, a six-year extension worth up to $126 million through 2020, came with only about $13 million guaranteed at signing and is structured in such a way that his base salaries from 2015 to 2017 are guaranteed only for injury, meaning that the team could cut him before April 1 of each year with minimal penalty.

But Kaepernick thinks the contract's structure gives the team flexibility with the rest of the roster, and he was well aware of the details before he signed it.

"It was very deliberate by my agents, the organization and myself that we wanted things done this way so we could keep a solid team here," Kaepernick said.

Is it fair to say that Kaepernick is betting on himself, that he'll be playing well enough as the team's starting quarterback that the 49ers wouldn't want to part with him?